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THE MOST CLOSELY CONTESTED WT20 EVER

The World T20, 2016 produced more memorable moments and contests than any of the previous five editions of the tournament and could, perhaps, compete with any World Cup on that score too. The final provided a fitting end to what had been a great spectacle and advertisement for cricket.

It turned out to be one of the most open and keenly contested world tournaments as was predicted by Impact Index in the tournament preview. That we got only 2 out of our 4 projected semi-finalists right (the least for any tournament for Impact Index) had a bit (though not completely) to do with how closely all the teams were stacked prior to the tournament.

However, our record of one of our projected semi-finalists winning the title stayed at 100%.

Here’s a look at the individual teams in detail (in order of their expected final position):

India- UNDERACHIEVED

What went right:
1) Performance of the bowling unit till the semi-final.
2) Virat Kohli vindicating his status as the highest impact batsman in T20I history.
3) Ashish Nehra emerging as the highest Economy Impact (conceding runs at a rate lower than the match norm) pacer of the tournament.

What went wrong:1) Dropping Harbhajan Singh, India’s highest impact bowler in all T20s, in the semi-final against West Indies.
2) Sticking with Shikhar Dhawan for a long time before dropping him.
3) Inability of the batting unit (except for Kohli) to contribute consistently. Only three Indians registered as specialist batsmen in the tournament- Kohli, Dhoni & Yuvraj.
4) Dew affected the match against West Indies.

What went right:
1) Performances of Usman Khawaja, Adam Zampa and Shane Watson.

What went wrong:1) Decision to give Adam Zampa only one over on a slow turning track against New Zealand at Dharamsala.
2) Asking David Warner to slot in the middle-order.
3) Dropping Aaron Finch for the first two games.
4) Absence of Mitchell Starc.
5) Virat Kohli’s genius performance in the virtual quarterfinal and New Zealand winning the toss and getting the best use of the surface in Dharamsala.

What went right:
1) Performance of Jeffrey Vandersay.
2) Youngsters getting to experience a world event.

What went wrong:1) Absence of Lasith Malinga as their qualifying hopes solely hinged on him.
2) Dismal failure of the batting unit as the experienced duo of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal failed to produce match-defining performances.
3) Only two bowlers qualified as specialist bowlers in the tournament- Jeffrey Vandersay and Rangana Herath.
4) Lack of defined roles for their youngsters- Milinda Siriwardana, Dasun Shanaka and Shehan Jayasuriya.

What went right:
1) Ability of their players to respond to big-matches and the big moments in them.
2) Decision to recall Lendl Simmons – a high impact batsman in T20 cricket.
3) Combined performances of their high impact all-rounders.
4) Samuel Badree’s ability to step up in the absence of Sunil Narine.
5) Batting unit’s ability to respond after the early loss of Chris Gayle.
6) Darren Sammy winning all the tosses in the tournament.

What went wrong:1) Chris Gayle’s inability to perform in the big-matches.
2) Darren Sammy’s unclear role as a player.

What went right:
1) A glimpse at Sharjeel Khan’s destructive abilities as an opener.
2) Mohammad Sami’s performance.

What went wrong:1) Inability to play as a team.
2) Playing Shoaib Malik – their highest impact batsman – lower down the order, not giving him enough time to build an innings.
3) Inability of Mohammed Amir and Mohammad Irfan to replicate their stellar domestic T20 records.
4) Tactical gaffe of playing only one specialist spinner against India in Kolkata.
Middle-order meltdown chasing against Australia & New Zealand.

What went right:
1) Lucky with the toss. Williamson called it right throughout the group stage and made first use of substandard pitches (which deteriorated and slowed down in the second half) by electing to bat – a distinct advantage even before the first ball was bowled.
2) The performance of their bowling unit which lived up to its billing of being the highest impact amongst all the teams entering the tournament.
3) Martin Guptill’s performances at the top of the order and the emergence of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi as genuine spinners.

What went wrong:1) Failure of Martin Guptill in the semi-final – New Zealand’s highest impact batsman in T20 cricket, given the fact that New Zealand were the lowest impact batting unit coming into the tournament
2) Tactical error of not opening with a spinner in their semifinal against England and Jason Roy.

What went wrong:1) AB de Villiers’ continuous inability to click in T20Is.
2) Their weakness of not having high quality all-rounders was further accentuated by JP Duminy’s injury.
3) Ending up on the wrong side of the coin in two dew affected games against England and West Indies.
4) Dale Steyn’s inability to pick wickets.

What went right:
1) Ability to play as a team.
2) Ability of Chris Jordan to nail yorkers at the death. England had the least restrictive bowling attack in the tournament and Jordan was himself a very low impact T20 bowler.
3) Performances of their seam bowlers in Indian conditions.
4) Joe Root’s emergence as a T20 batsman.

What went wrong:1) Alex Hales’ continuous failures at the top – England’s highest impact batsman prior to the start of the tournament.
2) Eoin Morgan’s wretched form with the bat. Both Hales & Morgan didn’t even register as specialist batsmen in the tournament.
3) Underwhelming performances of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid with the ball.

Eoin Morgan: Didn’t even register as a specialist batsman in this WT20.

Bangladesh- PLAYED TO POTENTIAL

What went right:
1) Mustafizur Rahman’s dominance in the tournament.
2) Consistency of Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman.

What went wrong:1) Horror brain-freezes of Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim in the chase against India. Potent enough to undo a lot of good progress this team had made prior to the World T20.
2) Pitted in the toughest group in the tournament after their qualification.
3) Suspension of Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny.
4) Continuous failures of Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Mithun at the top of the order.

What went right:
1) High impact performances of youngsters, especially those of Najibullah Zadran and Rashid Khan.
2) Mohammad Shahzad’s ability to cut loose at the top of the order.
3) Ability of Samiullah Shenwari and Asghar Stanikzai to bat under pressure of falling wickets.
4) The second-highest Economy Impact bowling unit of the tournament after New Zealand.

What went wrong:1) Using Shafiqulllah, their highest Strike Rate Impact batsman, too late down the order.
2) Lack of application and experience to close down the game against England.
3) Two dropped chances of AB de Villiers before he unleashed himself, a potential game-changing moment.